1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quick disconnect (see DEFINITIONS section) device for mechanically connecting objects to each other, more particularly to a quick disconnect device for elongated emergency tools (also herein called EETs, see DEFINITIONS section), and even more particularly to a quick disconnect device for connecting a long gun (see DEFINITIONS section) to a piece of clothing (see DEFINITIONS section) without translational play (see DEFINITIONS section) between the long gun and the clothing.
2. Description of the Related Art
EETs, and especially long guns, can be carried in a case, but this is not really appropriate for emergency situations where quick access to the long gun may be required. Long guns may be carried in the user's hands, but this is not comfortable for long periods of time, can interfere with walking or running and also occupies the user's hands so that they cannot be used for other tasks (for example, looking thru binoculars).
Therefore, when a user is going to carry a long gun over some distance or for some time, the most popular conventional way of doing this is with a sling. In the most popular sling design: (i) the long gun is connected at two spaced apart points to a strip of pliable fabric; and (ii) the strip fabric is mounted over the user's shoulder. The strip may be “mechanically connected” to the user's shoulder simply by the gravity of the long gun forcing the strap into a loose friction fit with the user's shoulder. There may also be slings that connect more rigidly to the user's clothing through connection hardware. However, even to the extent that these type of sling assemblies exist, the long gun is still free to translate and rotate in all three orthogonal directions because the pliable fabric will freely bend and sway in order to allow the connection points between the fabric strip and the long gun to freely move in space with six degrees of freedom, even if these connections are rigid connections in and of themselves.
There are other types of conventional slings that attach to various other points on a user's clothing, but what sling designs generally have in common is that one or more pieces of pliable fabric is in the mechanical connection between the long gun and the user's clothing so that the long gun will have translational play relative to its attachment point(s) on the user's clothing.
U.S. patent application 2011/0076095 (“Storch”) discloses a quick release attaching device that can form a mechanical attachment to a long gun. More specifically, the Storch device, shown in FIGS. 1 to 8 of Storch detachable attaches to a rail of a long gun. This rail is best shown at FIG. 8, reference numeral 3 of Storch. The rail extends outward from the exterior surface of the firearm (see Storch at FIGS. 1 and 2A and corresponding portions of its specification). As best shown in FIG. 8, reference numeral 3 of Storch, the rail is elongated in a direction parallel to the direction of elongation of the long gun so that the rail does not extend much in height relative to its length and width. The rail does have a protrusion at its top end, such that the width of the top end of the rail is greater than the width of the lower portion of the rail. However, as best shown at FIG. 8, reference numeral 3, the protrusion extends only in the width direction so that there is no protrusion in the length direction of the rail (that is, in the direction of elongation of the long gun). To put it another way, the protrusion does not extend all of the way around the rail within a plane normal to the height direction of the rail. When the rail of a firearm is attached to the Storch quick disconnect device, the long gun is rigidly attached to the rail. When the Storch long gun is connected: (i) it has no translational play relative to the quick disconnect device of Storch, and (ii) it cannot rotate relative to the quick disconnect device. Storch does disclose that its quick disconnect device may be fixedly mounted to a structure, such as a building wall or a vehicle wall. Storch does not disclose that its quick disconnect device can be mounted to a user's clothing.
The following published documents may also include helpful background information: (i) U.S. Pat. No. 562,549 (“Bodnar”); (ii) U.S. Pat. No. 7,841,496 (“Schweikert”); (iii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,836 (“Bush”); (iv) US patent application 2002/0195472 (“Hickman”); (v) U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,170 (“Norris”); (vi) U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,910 (“Horine”); (vii) U.S. Pat. No. 577,093 (“White”); (viii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,363 (“Graves”); (ix) U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,258 (“Verdugo”) and/or (x) U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,133 (“Seegmiller”).
Description Of the Related Art Section Disclaimer: To the extent that specific publications are discussed above in this Description of the Related Art Section, these discussions should not be taken as an admission that the discussed publications (for example, published patents) are prior art for patent law purposes. For example, some or all of the discussed publications may not be sufficiently early in time, may not reflect subject matter developed early enough in time and/or may not be sufficiently enabling so as to amount to prior art for patent law purposes. To the extent that specific publications are discussed above in this Description of the Related Art Section, they are all hereby incorporated by reference into this document in their respective entirety(ies).